Pkg xen devel - Feb 2014 - 4.3.0-3 fresh build - hvmloader Triple fault on VCPU0

When using the 4.3.0-3/4.3.0-3+b1 xen packages from the Debian archive, things
work fine.

However, when we compile the xen=4.3.0-3 source package ourselves, we run into
an issue launching an HVM.  As soon as the HVM bios is loaded, VCPU0 gets a
triple fault and the HVM is destroyed (this is with "loglvl=all
guest_loglvl=all hvm_debug=3" boot options).

(XEN) HVM1: Multiprocessor initialisation:
(XEN) HVM1:  - CPU0 ... 46-bit phys ... fixed MTRRs ... var MTRRs [2/8] ...
done.
(XEN) HVM1: Writing SMBIOS tables ...
(XEN) HVM1: Loading SeaBIOS ...
(XEN) hvm.c:1253:d1 Triple fault on VCPU0 - invoking HVM shutdown action 1.

If I just replace the "hvmloader" with the one from the Debian archive
xen-utils-4.3 package, things begin to work again.

I've gone so far as to install/setup the sbuild system to try and mimic the
Debian build environment, but I still run into the exact same issue.  I suspect
it may be some of the new unstable versions of the build dependencies that are
causing the issue.

Can somebody confirm whether they can build an HVM-functional version of Xen
from the current unstable?  Any suggestions on how best to debug this build
issue?

Thanks,

Keith Moyer
Software Architect/Engineer
Array Products

NetApp
316.636.8428 Direct Phone
keith.moyer at netapp.com
netapp.com

I've tracked down the issue to the seabios package being updated to 1.7.4-1
from 1.7.3-3.  When Xen is built with the older version, everything works fine.

In fact, I bisected the issue down to the following SeaBIOS commit:
http://review.coreboot.org/gitweb?p=seabios.git;a=commit;h=e144bb7af49ca8756b7222a75811f3b85b0bc1f5

I don't know if this group is interested in tracking down the regression,
but you should be aware that any rebuilding of the Xen packages (even with the
current source) will pull in this regression since seabios-1.7.4 is now in the
Debian repositories.

________________________________________
From: Moyer, Keith
Sent: Monday, February 03, 2014 9:57 AM
To: pkg-xen-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org
Subject: 4.3.0-3 fresh build - hvmloader Triple fault on VCPU0

When using the 4.3.0-3/4.3.0-3+b1 xen packages from the Debian archive, things
work fine.

However, when we compile the xen=4.3.0-3 source package ourselves, we run into
an issue launching an HVM.  As soon as the HVM bios is loaded, VCPU0 gets a
triple fault and the HVM is destroyed (this is with "loglvl=all
guest_loglvl=all hvm_debug=3" boot options).

(XEN) HVM1: Multiprocessor initialisation:
(XEN) HVM1:  - CPU0 ... 46-bit phys ... fixed MTRRs ... var MTRRs [2/8] ...
done.
(XEN) HVM1: Writing SMBIOS tables ...
(XEN) HVM1: Loading SeaBIOS ...
(XEN) hvm.c:1253:d1 Triple fault on VCPU0 - invoking HVM shutdown action 1.

If I just replace the "hvmloader" with the one from the Debian archive
xen-utils-4.3 package, things begin to work again.

I've gone so far as to install/setup the sbuild system to try and mimic the
Debian build environment, but I still run into the exact same issue.  I suspect
it may be some of the new unstable versions of the build dependencies that are
causing the issue.

Can somebody confirm whether they can build an HVM-functional version of Xen
from the current unstable?  Any suggestions on how best to debug this build
issue?

Thanks,

Keith Moyer
Software Architect/Engineer
Array Products

NetApp
316.636.8428 Direct Phone
keith.moyer at netapp.com
netapp.com

For the benefit of pkg-xen-devel:
On Thu, 2014-02-06 at 07:42 +0000, Moyer, Keith wrote:
> I've tracked down the issue to the seabios package being updated to
1.7.4-1 from 1.7.3-3.  When Xen is built with the older version, everything
works fine.
> 
> In fact, I bisected the issue down to the following SeaBIOS commit:
>
http://review.coreboot.org/gitweb?p=seabios.git;a=commit;h=e144bb7af49ca8756b7222a75811f3b85b0bc1f5
> 
> I don't know if this group is interested in tracking down the
regression, but you should be aware that any rebuilding of the Xen packages
(even with the current source) will pull in this regression since seabios-1.7.4
is now in the Debian repositories.
For the benefit of pkg-xen-devel this was discussed on the SeaBIOS and
upstream Xen lists and is fixed in Xen 4.3.1.

Ian.